Did I say final?

Oct 20, 2009

Okay, the last post being final? Just kidding...

Much meditation and asking around the forums, checking with reliable friends, and probing the minds of the experts, we are mothballing the self bailing sole completely. It appears as though it will raise the CG too much, make a more tender boat, and have such a shallow cockpit that it will make the boat into something it isn't. This took some time (obviously) to sort out, but I feel it is the best decision.

I loathe the idea of reliance on pumps, but this boat looks to make sense with that configuration. She is a dory, first and foremost. This hull is designed to carry a HUGE payload if need be, whether it is intentional or unintentional payload. Second, she is high sided and has one of the most immense transoms I've ever seen on a boat this size. I feel safe in a seaway with her. Last, pump tech as of late is decent, so I think with enough redundancy we can take her out for albies, with a buddy boat, and get home safely

In light of this, my direction has turned substantially. The cabin will be a very near replica to the original Mk 5 Clippercraft cabin with a forward sloping windshield. She will be, in essence, a commercial boat that gets used recreationally.

A kind and generous contact on the Clippercraft forum, Roger Berkenpas, has taken the time to measure his cabin on his commercial fishing vessel, making the dimensions available for this project, and will be chronicled and archived for later use by others.

So, back to the drawing board we went, AGAIN... Here the new setup is to pull the cabin height from the bow (thanks for the recommendation Michael) so she has a consistent shape:

This will be filled in more effectively with Roger's measurements, but this shows the relation between the hull, the sheer, and the bulkhead

Next I took some time to sort out the sole. Being that we are avoiding the self bailing setup, the former framing system is now useful and usable. Unfortunately it was pretty beaten up (and as I'm writing this I realized I didn't glue up one broken spot, so back out the shop I go...) which required some repairs.

The two long legs that support the sole beside the engine box were both broken by the previous owner, so they needed to be replaced. The easiest solution I could come up with was to cut them at the cross bracing, glue and screw new pieces on, and trim to fit in the boat. The framing will support the extension without the use of the cross bracing, so I wasn't too concerned with a scarf joint

Both sides needed repair, so everything is nice and equal

On the forward end, the board that would support the sole directly under the helmsman was broken and disfigured. I opted to do a scarf joint here, and backed it up with a butt block as it is not only a critical area, but one that will get by far the most abuse.

Yes, the scarf was a bit of a hack job, as I have no bench to work on and I'm not exactly amazing at long scarfs like this, as I have done a very limited number in soft woods like fir.

Another short intermission in work while we visit some family in Fighting Leprechaun country, but with Roger's dimensions, I think we will see some rapid progress.

Final cabin design

October 7, 2009

Finally, after an unbelievable trip to Iceland (highly recommended, everyone should see it), we have returned to beautiful Spokane, Wa, and our normal lives. Of course this means that the Clippercraft comes back to the forefront, as she is due for LOTS of work between now and the halibut opener in spring.

Without a doubt, this cabin problem has been complex. Today, capitalizing on some warm October weather, I pulled Cloud Cap out of the way, and brought our soon-to-be-named Clippercraft out of the dark corner of the shop. Here is the first photo in a correct scale, showing the rather half-assed cabin mockup I knocked together in a small space

Yes, very wonky, but bear in mind it was a 5 minute mockup to see how much cabin can sit on the top of the boat without looking too strange. What follows here is a very easy, very cheap, and very fast way to prototype a cabin or other aesthetic and size scaling template as fast as possible. Im sure it has a real name, but for my purposes it is just masking tape mockup. Using a cheap sheet of $10 lauan, I cut it down to the appropriate height, making the future side height parallel with the chine edge of the boat. This will give her a tilted appearance when moving, but a level appearance at the dock.

Then this panel was clamped to the previously built cabin nailers (3/4" x 3/4" CVG fir), and trimmed twice to fit the curve of the side decks for a clean fit. This area will be glued, nailed, then fiberglassed in later, so cabinet type fitting was unnecessary

Now this is the easy and fun part. Though she looks horribly blocky, we now have a canvas with which to work. Get out your trusty 3/8" or 1/2" masking tape (the cheaper the better) and start "drawing" lines on the boat

Place whatever lines you need on the sheet. Here you see a parallel, horizontal line representing the factory cabin shape with 6" of height added. Not exactly attractive, so the lower sloping line followed.

With a little more time and patience, the cabin shape starts to fall together. Below you can see the idealized windshield slope (12 degrees), and the trunk forward for the cuddy cabin. This shape was stolen from the Columbia River Bar Pilot boats, a notoriously seaworthy breed. These boats have tall cabins that require this bullnosed shape to hide their height. I like the functionality and the aesthetics, so I had the drawings nearby.

This cabin shape holds the mass a bit more centrally, not carrying weight forward, while giving lots of slope for water to shed in rain, spray, and taking waves. This was by eye, which to me turned out pretty decent.

Once you are happy, it's time to get out the saw...

There is a small addition stapled on the aft edge because the ideal cabin length looks to be around 9' from corner to corner. This used just a sliver from another sheet, and will be easy to glass on in the final product to get the lines smooth. You also note that I left the windows taped in place. I have noticed many of these west coast style boats can get pretty wonky pretty fast, and the windows seem to play a fundamental role in that.

Here are some other angles to get a rough idea:

Being rather pleased with the day's progress, we headed into town to attend to other matters.

Coming up this week, there should be some new plywood in the garage, allowing for the new side panels to be put in place, the new bulkhead inserted, and interior construction should commence. Please come back, don't miss a week of progress!

Follow up mocking

Sept 12, 2009

A few fleeting moments presented themselves this last week, which gave me an opportunity to do some quickie jobs that are uber-important but don't require large amounts of time to complete. Boat builders can all agree that it's nice to have a job or two that doesn't require someone to plan a week straight for hot-coating epoxy or doing a 12 hr layup.

As you, my loyal readers, have so eloquently noticed, this whole sole elevating thing has been an interesting challenge. The Clippercraft owners out there are finding out that it is possible to build a self bailing sole, but that it is a slightly complex concept. The mockup here allows me to test the planned height and give it a whirl. Last week, I assembled the frames and estimated that an 8" increase in height seemed to offer a good compromise. The frames were added, which got us to the mockup today.

Here is the original sole, laid on top of the +8" floors (frames which hold up the sole):

As you can see this really brings the sole up HIGH in the boat. The original "washdeck" as advertised in some of the literature from the '80s actually sat on top of the garboard lap, which made for a very shallow (less than 20") deck that required either feline balance or rails around the cockpit. This seems like a ton of extra money to add stainless rails, so I opted for frames. As was evidenced by this mockup, this whole 8" idea was too much. I have since cut them back to 6" above the existing frames, allowing a cockpit sole height at just above my knees, roughly 25" above the sole.

Since the weather is nice and we are here, might as well roll her out into the garage and have a look-see at the cabin sides, see how they relate to the new sole height, right?

This turned into a rather creative session of balancing on clamped-in frames, loose sole planks, and occasional swearing tirades where at one point a frame broke, the sole collapsed, the framing for the side claming popped off, and the cabin mockup all came crashing down in a cloud of dust, debris, clamps, and words ending in K. I love boat building...

Here is the cabin side that I am leaning toward. The height above the sole at 6" increased height is 6 feet. This, combined with a 6" cabin arch, should give relatively cavernous cabin height, but might require a little touching up, as I am 6' 3" tall and I don't want to hit my head any more often than I do.

Let's put on our imagination hats people, I only have enough scrap templating wood to put one side up. What do you think this is, a real shop?

For a little sense of scale and shape, here is a closer shot of the side/windshield angles themselves. The concept is to give a high seating area height for the V berth, while disguising a very tall wheelhouse by adding the sloped cabin roof. This is a trick I found on the Columbia River Bar Pilot boats, as well as the USCG MLB47's to give a slightly diminished apparent height. My opinion is that she's workmanlike without being wonky.

This week will be a little slow, being out of town, but our return should bring cool fall weather, less travel, and more free time to get some serious WORK done on the boat. I implore everyone interested in Clippercraft boats to come to the Amateur Boatbuilding Forum, register, and get involved in saving these Clippercraft boats. They are a West Coast classic that could die out if owners don't unite and share information about the boats.

Stay Tuned!

Self bailing sole

Sept 9, 2009

Just a quick post before bed tonight. Had a chance to use a little free time afforded by paint showing up a day later to mess around with the self bailing sole support.

It looks as though the 8" addition I put on the frames may be a bit bold, as when my foot was placed on them (without 3/4" of sole) my kneecap fell right on the edge of the gunnel. That's just a hair too low for my preference, so it looks like we might drop her down to 6" to preserve some depth.

Here is a pair of shots, one showing the aft bulkheads, the other showing where an additional 8" falls on the planking for a frame of reference for those who might be considering the option on a rebuild.

Making her waterproof

Sept 7, 2009

This is always a bit of a challenge at our place, as it takes a good combination of weather and days off with my schedule to make hot coating epoxy possible. I don't mind doing the work, but it never seems to go easily, and the hours get longer.

After the sanding of all the panels, the interior hull sides were bare wood once again, which is never good in a place that has humidity vary from 100% to less than 10% on a reasonably regular basis. I did some detail sanding on some thin spots on the exterior as well, in preparation for a complete plywood coating of the hull sides. As a reminder, we have already coated the most vulnerable areas of the interior with surfboard fiberglass, and the exterior bottom panels have a thick, durable coat from the factory which was still in good shape.

I didn't shoot photos of the progress because of lessons learned from the previous build Building Nina (Do you have any idea how well cameras dislike uncured epoxy? Not nearly as much as they dislike it when it cures later...). I have chosen, with this build, to preserve both the boat and the camera.

Here she is, fully coated on the panels that received sanding:

The shop will be taking a little precedent today, but I have hopes that I can get the bulkhead or the sole supports/frame additions done in the next week before Iceland.

Interior work begins

August 30, 2009

Finally, the weather has become a little more tolerable here in Spokanistan...

Having put down a trip out for salmon recently, I have settled on the cabin shape, have decided that the sole needs to come up at a minimum 6" and more likely 8", and am chomping at the bitt to get started on this whole endeavor. We are still messing around with the high temps, but some days are tolerable so work can get accomplished.

First off, the bilges of Clippercraft boats as built were notorious for collecting junk, holding fresh water, and developing rot. This boat will NOT be one of those boats! The interior of the bilge had some of the BCX exposed where the doubling stringers didn't cover them, so let's get that handled, shall we?

The culprit, showing the issue:

Back aft:

The solution! Just happened to have a roll of 3.25 oz surfboard fabric hanging around from the Oxford Rowing Shell project, which takes very little epoxy to wet out. I laid waste to the remnant roll, cutting out all the little tidbits I needed for the full length runs of the boat. It's tedious work, but well worth it.

And aft:

Now about all that age...

The previous owners did a good job of keeping her inside, but at some point a little water made its way somewhere, and did a little settling here and there. On top of that, being an Oregon boat, the humidity did a number on the raw plywood of the interior. Luckily enough for me, I get to do more sanding! ugh...

Here is a shot that illustrates just how rewarding doing a refurb can be. First, a shot of the side with some areas sanded and others left to show the difference:

Mere moments later, after a little 120 grit and a little love from the musculature:

For good measure, a long shot:

Once again, fishing gets in the way of boat building this week. Steelheading has been thrust upon me by my friends down the lake, so we will be hopefully slaying them as you read this. Then a short week over Labor day, and off to compete in the Washington Tuna Classic! I was lucky enough to receive an invite on a boat with an open seat, so we will do our best to put tuna in the boat for a good cause (and bring SWMBO home a few more loins for the winter famine period)

Final Mockups

July 13, 2009

Throughout the summer, I have spent a little extra time looking at and scheming what I want to do with the boat. Talking with friends and neighbors that fish, they have influenced the decision a bit to see about a hardtop instead of an open boat. Seeing that this will be a dedicated fishing machine, I thought it had merit to at least take a look at the idea

The idea of the raised sole and what was necessary to make a good fishing boat challenged the cabin design. It needs to be a raised deck to the bulkhead, open cabin aft, self bailing, and easy to clean. After much deliberation, a forward slanted windshield appears to be the most utilitarian, keeping water off, reducing glare, and giving a place for electronics to be stored. Here is the initial mockup of the fwd slanted cabin:

Here she is with the cabin front and windshield sorta kinda faked in, with a dash of half-assed clamping and supports:

Snazzy eh?

Initial Mockups

June 7, 2009

Started the mock up process the past couple of days between tasks and other obligations. Its terribly pleasant to have a project to work on, but one that isn't tied to deadlines or other time-sensitive criteria.

Using a little cheap lauan plywood, its fast to throw together a clampable/screwable setup which gives a reasonable representation.

Im thinking its still a hair stubby, might need a little lengthening for visual balance. The V berth should have good headroom for sitting on the bunks or on the honey pot with this 12" configuration forward, 19" aft. The windshield will need the side panels cut off and a new, curved setup installed to make the lines work. Piece of cake, right?

A stray followed me home

June 3, 2009

I was horribly torn. I love scratch building, but with the economy what it is, the best price point for a given vessel is a good idea. Couple that with the "green" aspect of finishing something that already exists (less waste, less shipping costs, fixed expenses built in, etc), and a GREAT price worked out through months of negotiating, results in a 6 hr drive home from Hood River.

Looks Diminutive, right?

At a full 2 feet taller than the truck, she's a little wind-prone and takes some gas to haul!

What we have here is a 1994 Clippercraft Mk 1. 1994 EZ loader trailer, 1994 Volvo 3.0GL 4 cyl IO with the SX outdrive. Purchased initally in 1994, the first owner had intentions of picking her up, finishing the boat, and enjoying it. A decade later, he passed away, and it was sold to another gentleman with the same aspirations. There it sat for another few years, untouched.

Plans are starting to come together for a 23' sportfisher, rigged up for salmon and halibut fishing, with the outside potential for albacore fishing once she is bulletproof.

Lots of work to be done, from top to bottom there is something everywhere that needs attention...